Yoo-Hoo. Love it or hate it? Personally, I love the stuff. A lot of folks tell me they can't stand it, so I tell them that it is an "acquired taste." Which, of course got me to thinking (well, that and the email we got from Dad yesterday, which I will elaborate upon in a bit): Why on Earth do we eat things that one must 'acquire' the taste for? I mean, really... Now, granted, for some people, there is no acquiring the taste - they love it from the get-go (like me and Yoo-Hoo). Broccoli - some people love it. I've been told that for me, it may be an 'acquired taste.' Umm... No, but thank you anyway. I've tried the stuff. In addition to the awful texture, I don't like the taste of it. Somewhere in life, I learned that if you try something 14 times, you will either have grown to like it, or you will never like it. Calamari. Okay, you will never get me to try it more than the one time I tried it, let alone 13 MORE times! No way, not for a ton of cash.. Okay, well, maybe for a ton of cash.... :-)
So, in my book, there are things for which I never plan on acquiring the taste:
- Wine/Champagne - Sorry, but it is bitter, nasty stuff. UGH...
- All seafood/fish (with a few exceptions) - oysters, squid, octopus, clams, shark, swordfish, urchins, seaweed, lobster, crab, crawfish, etc. No way. Exceptions: salmon, catfish, cod...that about sums it up...
- Country Greens - turnip greens, okra, etc. I did have fried okra once, and it was good, but the texture kills it for me...
- Misc - Sushi, "high end" meals (you know, the ones that cost you 45 bucks for a sliver of something on the plate with 42 decorations around it), snails, fish eggs...
- Internal organs or other specified body parts - liver, heart, intestines, fat, tongues, toes, feet, brains, testicles, etc. What possesses someone to look at a pile of pig intestines and say, "Oh yeah! Slap some of that on my plate, would ya?" If you are one of those people, more power to ya...
There are other things, I'm sure, but for now, I'll let you (pardon the pun) digest those...
Now, the reason for this post - We got an email from Dad yesterday, telling us about his new place in Iraq. It seems that there is gunfire throughout the day and bombs go off a couple times a day. Oh, and helicopters fly overhead so low that it shakes the "hooch" (he said that's what they call the hovels) where he is staying. All of this was followed up with, "I'm sure I'll get used to it in time..."
Excuse me? "Get used to it!?" The very first thought that popped in my head upon reading that was of my Great-Grandparents who lived in Hazelwood, Pa. Now, I don't know what Hazelwood is like now, but when I was a kid, it stunk to high heaven. You see, the city is located across the river from what was then an active steel mill. Now, I don't know jack about the steel-making process, but I do know that the after-effects that must be burned off smell like some strange combination of rotten eggs burning in flatulence. Yes. Picture that, smell it in your head. It's bad. I asked my Great-Grandmother how she could stand living there with the smell, and (you guess it) she said, "You get used to it. I don't even notice it anymore." Okay, maybe it's just me, but that cannot be healthy! Anywhere I have to "get used" to the environment in order to live there means one thing: I don't live there! When I worked in Camden, AR, the paper mill would put out this incredibly, awful odor. On hot, humid days, it was 100 times worse than 'normal.' When I asked folks about it, I was told, "you get used to it..." In Denver, the Purina dog food plant will make you think twice about a lot of things - owning a dog, feeding your dog, eating lunch, breathing ever again.....
Now, I can't point fingers too far... You see, every so often, the cows in the pasture, combined with the horse and goats when the wind and conditions are just right, remind me that I live on a farm.... It's nothing major... After all, you get used to it....
Some things you do get "used to". And by the way, Hazelwood is on the SAME side of the river as the city........
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that smell was the mill. The coke for the Steel being quenched made that horrific odor.
Now, how 'bout this? When I was little, I asked grandpap what that smell was. We were in Grandpap's car going somewhere. Glor and Grandma, me and Grandpap. He told me (are ya ready for this? Wait for it.Here it comes.....) That was the smell from the (N-word) cause they don't bathe!!! Grandma hit him really hard and told him not to tell the children that!!! I didn't find out till way later when Pap told me what it really was. He laughed really hard when I told him what Grandpap said.